President Marjii Ellers’ “R” having been stolen by pirates, Eylat Poliner called meeting #3994 to order at 8:03.
The Menace were read. Milt Stevens bid $4 to call the Menace “The Giant Rat of LASFS”.
Eylat had some announcements.
Committee Reports
Coming up:
3/6, Vote for Loscon 43; Tom Safer video presentation
3/13 Steve Barnes Presents
3/20 auction
3/27, special business TBA
Registrar Michelle announced a lack of guests.
CLJII announced LA 4000, last weekend of April. Lots of interesting people, lots of interesting stuff to see, a Kelly Freas slideshow of art, and all kinds of neat stuff. $25 currently, $40 at the door.
Eylat announced Meeting #4000, April 10, with David Gerrold presiding, and various members of the club on a panel telling what was happening when they joined, and why they joined. Marty Cantor is putting together a photo album, and Eylat is putting together a photo montage of members. Send her your photos. Karl Lembke is not to send his photos.
Time-bound Announcements Reviews Fannish Committee Reports Miscellaneous
Matthew Tepper announced the passing of Martin Greenberg, co-founded Gnome press. Published books by the great names of SF. He even paid some of them.
The Committee to Gouge auctioned off some stuff including a signed copy of The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett.
We also have two patron saints!
Bill Ellern
Debra: Bill is one of the most generous people she knows. A lot of people get irritated when he outbids them in the auction, but he really wants to support the club.
Christian: Bill is a published writer, as well as a fan. He wrote a Lensman novel. It began as a novelette published in Analog, and expanded into New Lensman (1976).
Jerry Pournelle: Bill was twice a colleague, he was a professional sf writer and he was also a professional aerospace engineer. He was part of the committee to provide adult supervision to the LASFS. He’s married to one of my favorite people.
Tepper: Historical note: when we moved out of the Burbank blvd clubhouse, there were a few on the premises to document the close-up. Bill was the most senior present and it was his job to turn off the lights in each building and lock up. And it’s been photographed.
Mike thorson: bill along with his wife Anne have given out Hall Costume awards encouraging people to be creative and detailed in their costumes. He was also part of the committee to affix things to the walls of the LASFS.
Eylat: She’s been working for him for almost three months under trying circumstances. The man has an amazing amount of patience she’s seen in any one person. He is a saint just for that. He believes that no LASFSian or fan should ever go hungry.
Bill Ellern was given three cheers and never going hungry.
Marjii Ellers
Hare remembers Marjii as one of the nicest people here. When his sister forgot and left her dress at a hotel, Marjii ran it down at the hotel. When she was Loscon guest of honor, she gave a 10# bar of chocolate to the con suite each day of the convention.
Scratch: she was a grand lady, always gentle and courteous, a master of costumes, and often used as a masquerade judge. She loved to dance in the Regency dances, but would dress as a male because there were never enough male dancers at these things. In the cabinet, we have a photo of her in her Barbarella costume, but this is the PG version. She masqueraded without the front cover, but carried it off with such aplomb there were no negative comments.
She re-did the bathroom in the front building, laying the tile and applying the space wallpaper that was used.
Pournelle: On top of that she was a dish and didn’t mind you knowing it.
Tepper: has not followed a number of costumers, but her Queen of Air and Darkness was a marvelous costume.
Marjii Ellers was given three cheers and class.
Aldo Spadoni rose to announce his program. A visual history of recent space launch programs.
Milt Stevens reviewed possible Hugo nominees. The Arrows of Time by greg Egan. There are no human characters, and it’s a part of the universe where the rules of physics are very different. from ours. The aliens are very different as well.
Matthew Tepper mentioned Nebula Award nominations are out. A LASFS member, Lawrence Schoen is among the nominees for Trial of the Century.
David Okamura announced: The Orange Empire Railway Museum has a steampunk carnival on March 16, 17.
Last night, attended Orange County SF club, in the meeting room at Denny’s where there’s no food ban. John Hertz was a speaker there.
Kepler scope had trouble when two gyroscopes failed. The data processed over the last couple of years has been looked at again. They found 715 planets huddled around 305 stars. 95 are smaller than Neptune, and 4 are in the habitable zone. This is a major development.
In the US, polio has been pretty much eradicated. In Northern CA, some 20 children have come down with a polio-like ailment. Median age of the kids is 12, and they were vaccinated against Polio. This is worrisome.
Scratch: They also found it in Australia and the Orient.
Marcia Minsky: two weeks from today will be her final class at school, and she expects to walk the stage with honors, and have her BS in health care administration.
David Okamura: found a major article on the Harry Potter series. Eylat asked to take it home for her daughter.
Scratch: speaking of Harry Potter fans -- he used to teach D&D. Has never seen a book series that had such a tremendous impact on kids. Seen 400 kids standing in line for bookstores to open.
Jerry Pournelle: And the literary critical world has run a big article in the Huntington Post saying of she loves writing, she should stop so she can make room for people to step in and make money. She should use Jerry Pournelle’s response: “Look, I’m making them enough profit they can afford to buy our miserable works.”
Jerry rose to speak about life as it’s been for him for the past two weeks, beginning with his Harry Potter scar and ending with the passing of his dog.
Sandra Stoller will be speaking soon. Just confirmed with Larry and Jerry for a talk on April 24.
Matthew Tepper moved to adjourn to the program. It was seconded.
And so we adjourned at 9:00 PM.